Stockholm at Christmas
In December the sun is down in Stockholm before three in the afternoon, and I love it for that, because the whole city answers the dark with light. Paper stars and Advent candles glow in the windows, more than 50 streets are strung with lights, and in Gamla stan a ring of red huts sits round the Christmas tree on Stortorget, under tall merchant houses painted in warm colours.
The Stockholm Christmas market itself is small, and I’d rather you knew that before you got there, because you can walk all the way round Stortorget’s huts in 20 minutes (it had 41 last year, about half the size of the Rathausmarkt market in Hamburg).
I don’t mind in the slightest, because the best of Stockholm’s Christmas is spread right across the city. Out on Djurgården, Skansen has a second market where bonfires burn along the paths and a folk band strikes up by the tree until a whole crowd of strangers is holding hands and dancing round it. The boats still run out into the archipelago on an ordinary transport ticket, and on Sunday 13 December the city sings for Lucia by candlelight.
Skansen’s market keeps weekend hours, so plan your trip around a Friday to Sunday, and you’ll get the red huts glowing in Gamla stan and the dancing on the hill in the same few days, which is about as good as December gets.
When Is the Stockholm Christmas Market 2026?
The Stockholm Christmas market on Stortorget runs every day from Saturday 21 November to Wednesday 23 December 2026, and it’s free to walk in. Last year it opened 11:00 to 18:00 from Sunday to Thursday and stayed open until 19:00 on Fridays and Saturdays, and it’s expected to keep the same hours once the 2026 times are out.
Skansen’s market works differently, because it runs Friday to Sunday only, from 27 November to 20 December, from 10:00 to 17:00 on Fridays and Saturdays and until 16:00 on Sundays, and you need a Skansen ticket to get in.
Christmas in Sweden happens on the 24th, so every market in this guide has closed by Christmas Eve, and the state off-licence, Systembolaget, shuts from 24 to 26 December too, so buy anything you want for the holidays before then.
If you’re in Stockholm over Christmas anyway, Skansen is where I’d go. Its park stays open 10:00 to 14:00 on Christmas Eve and 10:00 to 16:00 from Christmas Day, and on New Year’s Eve it opens again from 20:00 until midnight.
| Date | What’s on |
|---|---|
| Sat 14 Nov | The city’s Christmas lights switch on in Kungsträdgården at 16:00 |
| Sat 21 Nov | Stortorget market opens |
| Fri 27 Nov | Skansen market opens, Fridays to Sundays only |
| Sat 28 Nov | Student market in Kungsträdgården, 11:00 to 16:00 |
| Sun 29 Nov | First Advent, with Mariefred’s market and Sigtuna’s first Sunday |
| Fri 4 to Sun 6 Dec | Christmas market at the Royal Stables |
| Sat 5 to Sun 6 Dec | Vaxholm’s archipelago market |
| Sun 13 Dec | Lucia, with concerts at Skansen |
| Sun 20 Dec | Last day for Skansen and Sigtuna |
| Wed 23 Dec | Last day for Stortorget |
| From Thu 24 Dec | Closed until next season |
The Best Christmas Markets in Stockholm
Stockholm’s two big markets give you completely different days, one in a medieval square and one on a hilltop full of old farmhouses, and you want both.
Stortorget in Gamla Stan (Stortorgets julmarknad)
This is the old one. There’s been a Christmas market on Stortorget since 1837, in the prettiest square in the city, with the Nobel Prize Museum on one side and those painted merchant houses leaning over the stalls.
It very nearly didn’t happen this year. In September the police asked for vehicle barriers and paid security round the square, the organiser said the cost made the sums very hard to make work, and I was properly relieved when it was confirmed as saved at the end of October.
The barriers take up part of Stortorget, so a few stalls have moved round the corner to Järntorget, about a four-minute walk away.
The stalls are mostly Swedish crafts, ceramics, wool and candles, with caramels, game sausage and glögg in between, and this is one Christmas market where I’d actually come with room in my bag.
If you want to look at any of it properly, come to Stortorget just after 11:00 on a weekday, because on a weekend afternoon the square fills up and there’s nowhere on a square this size for the crowd to go.
Then come back when the lights come on, around 15:00. The huts glow red against the dark, the tree lights up in the middle, and the colours of the old houses round the edge catch the glow, and that’s the Stortorget I’d want you to remember.
Your loop won’t take long after dark, and with nowhere to sit and only a couple of huts doing hot food, you’ll want one of the cafés round the square soon enough. The market shuts at 18:00 (19:00 on Fridays and Saturdays), which feels annoyingly early in a city that’s been dark since three, so Gamla stan’s restaurants take over the evening from there.
Skansen (My Favourite)
Skansen’s Christmas market has been running since 1903, up on the hill of an open-air museum of old Swedish houses on Djurgården. I’d get there the way that makes it feel like an outing, on the Djurgården ferry from Slussen, about 13 minutes across the dark water on an ordinary transport ticket.
Bonfires burn along the paths, and you’ll be glad of every one, because the hilltop is exposed, windy and colder than town. The farmhouses are dressed for Christmas the way they would have been in their day, and then up on Bollnästorget a folk band strikes up by the tree and everyone, parents, children and complete strangers, joins hands and dances round it. It’s the happiest few minutes of a Stockholm December.
It happens at 11:00, 12:00, 13:30, 14:30 and 15:30, and you’ll want to be in the ring holding a stranger’s hand, not standing at the edge filming it.
You do pay full museum entry for all this, because there’s no market-only ticket, and if the stalls were all you came for you’d feel stung, since they’re a fairly ordinary mix of crafts and Christmas food. Give it half a day with the reindeer and the old houses, though, and I wouldn’t grudge a krona of it.
I’d start that half day early. The light goes before 15:00, the paths up to Bollnästorget are easy to lose once it’s dark, and on a Sunday the stalls pack up at 16:00. Friday is Skansen’s calmest day, and if it has to be a Saturday, I’d be at the gate when it opens at 10:00.
The Royal Stables (Hovstallet)
Imagine doing your Christmas shopping with the King’s horses looking over their stall doors at you. For one weekend, 4 to 6 December, about 70 Swedish craftspeople set up inside the royal stables in Östermalm, among the harness room and the coach halls, and if you want presents made by Swedish hands, this is where I’d buy them.
It’s 120 kronor at the door, with children under 12 free, and it gets very crowded, so I’d go on Friday 4 December, when it stays open until 19:00.
Kungsträdgården’s Student Market
On Saturday 28 November more than 600 student companies from Stockholm’s schools take over Kungsträdgården from 11:00 to 16:00, selling things they’ve designed and made themselves. It’s free and it’s huge, and it’s a brilliant way to spend that Saturday if you did Skansen on the Friday. Get there for the 11:00 start, because in 2022 plenty of the stands sold out within hours.
Which Stockholm Christmas Markets Are Open on Which Days?
This is the thing that catches people out in Stockholm, because only Stortorget is open every day. Everything else runs on weekends, or on a single date, so the day you arrive changes the trip completely.
- Monday to Thursday is Stortorget on its own, plus the lights, the shops of Gamla stan and the museums.
- Friday adds Skansen, and on 4 December the Royal Stables until 19:00.
- Saturday adds the student market on 28 November, the Royal Stables and Vaxholm on 5 December, and Skansen every week.
- Sunday is Skansen, Sigtuna on every Advent Sunday, Mariefred on 29 November, and the Royal Stables and Vaxholm on 6 December.
If I could pick one weekend, it would be Friday 4 to Sunday 6 December, with the Royal Stables on the Friday evening, the boat to Vaxholm on the Saturday and Skansen or Sigtuna on the Sunday. The other weekend I’d happily take is 11 to 13 December, because Lucia falls on the Sunday.
What to Eat and Drink at the Stockholm Christmas Markets
The first thing I’d have is a lussekatt, the S-shaped saffron bun that turns up everywhere around Lucia, with a glögg in a little cup and a ginger biscuit balanced on top, held in both gloves while the lights come on.
Just don’t expect that glögg to do what a Glühwein does, because the glögg at the stalls is often weak or alcohol-free, and at 60 kronor a cup at Stortorget last year (about €5.50) you’re paying more for less than the roughly €4 Glühwein at the Lübeck Christmas market. For the real, boozy version, I’d head into a bar or restaurant round the square.
Everything else at the stalls is snacking, and these were last year’s Stortorget prices.
- Glögg is spiced, sugared mulled wine with raisins and blanched almonds dropped in, and the alcohol-free one was 50 kronor.
- Pepparkakor are thin, crisp gingerbread biscuits, and at 80 kronor for a 200 g bag they’re the easiest present to carry home.
- Varmkorv, a hot sausage, was 65 kronor, and some stalls do game sausage too, which is the one I’d pick.
- Brända mandlar, sugar-roasted almonds, were 50 kronor a bag.
- Knäck is chewy Swedish Christmas toffee, from 70 to 100 kronor, and it’s the sweet I’d take home for the people who didn’t come.
The market snacks won’t make a meal, though, and the meal you really want in Stockholm in December is a julbord, the huge Swedish Christmas buffet of herring, salmon, meatballs and ham, where you go back to the table more times than you’d ever admit.
Book a julbord at least once, either at the Grand Hôtel’s Veranda, where 1,195 kronor buys the whole spread looking straight across the water at the Royal Palace, or on a julbord cruise through the archipelago, which is about the most Stockholm way to eat Christmas dinner I can think of.
What’s the Weather Like in Stockholm in December?
The days are short, with sunrise at 08:38 and sunset at 14:46 on 15 December, so do Skansen in daylight and Stortorget after dark.
Once the sun’s gone, the cold comes in fast. Stockholm in December averages about 3°C by day and just below freezing at night, and on a cold night it feels closer to −5°C, so warm, waterproof boots and a proper hat will do more for you here than anything else in your bag.
The waterproof part matters, because in our snow odds study there was snow on the ground on 35% of Stockholm’s market days, which means a real chance of Gamla stan’s red huts under white rooftops, and I’d be thrilled for you if you get it.
Paying is the easy part. Skansen’s gates, shops and most of its stalls are cashless, most stalls in town take cards, and the metro, trams and ferries all take a tap of your contactless card at 43 kronor a ticket. You’ll see Swish signs on plenty of stalls, but Swish needs a Swedish bank account, so a contactless card is all you need, including for the boats out to the islands.
Day Trips to Christmas Markets Near Stockholm
Some of the best Christmas markets near Stockholm are out on the water or down the railway line, a steamship up to Sigtuna, an hour through the islands to Vaxholm or a steam train to Mariefred, and that ride out is as much the reason to go as the stalls.
Sigtuna
The best way to Sigtuna is the old steamship from Skeppsbron, which leaves at 09:30, gets in at 13:00 and costs 575 kronor return, so you arrive across the lake into Sweden’s oldest town.
The market runs on the four Sundays before Christmas, which this year are 29 November and 6, 13 and 20 December, from 11:00 to 16:00. Sigtuna hasn’t posted its own 2026 dates yet, but the listings all agree on them. The stalls run along the old main street and down to the lake, it’s been going for just over 70 years, and the thing to eat is a Sigtunamunk, the town’s own doughnut.
If the boat doesn’t fit, take the commuter train to Märsta and the bus from there. Don’t drive, though, because parking runs out by midday and the queue of cars backs up towards Märsta.
Vaxholm
The Waxholmsbolaget boat from Strömkajen takes about an hour, threading through the islands on an ordinary transport ticket, and I’d go for that ride alone. On 5 and 6 December it drops you at Vaxholm’s archipelago market, which runs from 11:00 to 16:00 along the harbour.
Mariefred and Gripsholm Castle
On the first Sunday of Advent, 29 November, Mariefred holds a one-day market on its square below Gripsholm Castle, from 10:00 to 16:00. At 14:30 Santa steps off a steam train and rides to the square by horse and carriage, so if you’re travelling with children, Mariefred on 29 November is the day trip to pick.
Lucia in Stockholm
Lucia falls on Sunday 13 December this year, and if you can bend your trip to fit it, I would.
A girl in white with a crown of lit candles leads a procession of singers through the dark, with her attendants, the star boys and the gingerbread children walking behind her, and on a black mid-December afternoon it’s the most Swedish thing you’ll see, and one of the most beautiful.
An easy place to see it is Skansen, where the Lucia concerts in Seglora Church at 11:00, 13:00, 14:30 and 16:00 are included in your ticket, along with a 1920s-style Lucia in Ordenshuset at 11:30, 13:30 and 15:00. Ordenshuset lets nobody in once it’s started, so be at Ordenshuset early, and grab a lussekatt on the way out.
Is the Stockholm Christmas Market Worth It?
Stockholm at Christmas is one of my favourite trips in Europe, and Stortorget is only a small part of why.
If a big market is all you’re after, Germany does bigger and cheaper ones, and the square on its own won’t fill a day. Give Stockholm a long weekend with Skansen open, though, with the red huts glowing in the dark and a hilltop full of strangers dancing round the tree, and I think you’ll love it as much as I do. And if you can make it 11 to 13 December, Lucia is waiting for you on the Sunday.
